After more than a year of ongoing investigations from the state, Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly has had enough.
And so have other local public figures.
They say the investigation is annoying and intrusive and giving Athens County a bad name.
“The Attorney General’s office needs to realize there’s nothing here and say, ‘It’s time to leave this guy alone so he can do his job,’ ” Kelly said.
The sheriff has been the subject of an ongoing grand jury investigation, which Attorney General Mike DeWine called to convene this summer, and local officials in and outside county government say it puts a “cloud” over Kelly’s office.
“And that gets expanded to the rest of the county,” said County Commissioner Lenny Eliason. “All we’re doing now is complying with the grand jury’s requests.”
The state began investigating Kelly in September 2012 after Kelly allegedly assaulted a man, who then complained to the Jacksonville Police Department.
The chief of police in Jacksonville notified Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn, who handed the case to DeWine for investigation as Blackburn noted he had an inherent conflict of interest due to the relationship between the prosecutor’s and sheriff’s offices.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said even though the investigation is mostly a county matter, it could still affect public perception of the city, which shares a name with the county.
“To some extent, there’s the political aspect in terms of people who like him against people who don’t like him,” Wiehl said. “I don’t know of any solutions or fix-ups at this point, but from what I hear he’s doing the best job he can.”
Kelly echoed that and said he believes he’s actually added integrity to the sheriff’s office.
“All we’re trying to do is protect the county and (DeWine’s office) is just trying to destroy all that we’ve built here the last five years,” Kelly said. “Ask any employee in this office and they’ll say they’re tired of this.”
At least one employee, Captain Bryan Cooper, said he stands with the sheriff and criticized the state’s investigation.
“If (Kelly) is this horrible, then (the attorney general) is allowing him to continue to be horrible,” he said of the investigation seemingly not yet showing any findings.
“And that doesn’t make sense to me.”
Eliason said he heard the investigation could finish sometime in November or December. But Dan Tierney, spokesman for DeWine, said no timetable is in place.
“We understand the need to bring closure to this case, and all cases for that matter, but we still need to bring out the rest of the investigation,” Tierney said. “We do our best to conduct the investigation in an efficient manner.”
Still, Kelly has repeatedly criticized DeWine.
“If you’ve got something on me, Mike DeWine, then charge me,” he said. “If you don’t, then crawl back in your friggin’ hole underneath the curb and stay the heck out of my county...
“I’ve done nothing wrong.”
az346610@ohiou.edu
@XanderZellner
